Saturday, May 22, 2010

I don't know why, but I feel like doing a top 10 list. But I don't want to limit it to a console or a genre, or a publisher. What about top 10 pre-disc systems? Which means anything before November 1998 when the Dreamcast was released. Cartridge games. We still have those, though they aren't as cool as the originals. Excluding PC games mostly because my only non-CD experience for a PC game was a floppy disc of Star Wars X-Wing. And that's about it. Now for a fancy title:

Top 10 Cartridge Video Games,

Before the Sega Dreamcast!

Look. It's all bolded and colorful. That makes it important.

This is based on personal opinion. Because everyone has a different perspective on their favorite lists. No two lists are going to be alike. But feel free to comment. If anyone is reading...anyone?

This list takes into account everything from the Magnavox Odyssey up to the Nintendo 64, including hand hold systems such as the GameBoy and Sega GameGear. It's a lot of ground to cover. I'm skipping over the Commidore's poor attempt in 1993 with their CD based system for obvious reasons. Oh and the Sega Saturn and Sega CD. Cartridges only.

10. Pokémon Red/Green/Blue. GameBoy 1996 - Pokémon was good until it got oversaturated into a television show, manga series, and endless collection of spinoff games. I'm talking about early Pokémon. Before any of that madness began. Back to a simpler time. It was a game(s) that was about simplicity. Try to catch all of the weird creatures in the world. Back where there were only 150 of them. What are we up to now? Google says 493. Damn. That's a ton. Just getting 150 in Red and Blue were a pain. I can't imagine 400+. Anyway. The gameplay is simple, but it was highly addicting. The addition of the GameBoy and GameBoy Advance cable connection allowed you to trade your Pokémon with friends. That seems trivial now, but this was unheard of back in the day. It was the first game that you felt like you could play alone or with a friend and experience everything it had to offer.

9. Pitfall Atari. 1982- If you had an Atari, you had Pitfall. It was a simple concept. You had 20 minutes to pick up all of the treasures in the jungle, while maneuvering through a maze of traps, such as alligators, snakes, quicksand, and pits. It's considered one of the first platform games created and a challenge. I remember so many nights as a child trying to get the last treasure, and dying to something silly. Like missing the jump to catch the rope. That sucked. This was a childhood favorite before the Nintendo entered our home, and it brings back a lot of memories.

8. Banjo-Kazooie Nintendo 64. 1998- My N64 submission. Before you start yelling, I do enjoy Super Mario 64 and it is one of the best games in the Mario series. But I enjoyed Banjo-Kazooie more. It was the one game I can remember playing for hours on end, for months at a time. Even now, I can remember the puzzles inside Clanker's Cavern, where you had to maneuver though a mechanical shark. It creped me out every time. Banjo-Kazooie was one of the more polished N64 games. It wasn't as clunky in textures as the earlier titles, had expansive levels, and combined platforming, puzzle working, and role playing into one.

7. Space Invaders 1978-Atari/Calico - It's Space Invaders. If you haven't played, I'm sure there are 20 thousand iterations on Xbox Live you can download. This is the quintessential time waster. You shoot at aliens. They blow up into little pixilated pieces. What's not to love? Miyamoto, the guy who made Mario, considers Space Invaders a game that revolutionized the industry. Without it, we wouldn't have all of the stuff that exists today. It's one of the first shooter games that took a top-down view approach instead of side to side action. It allowed for more use of the screen, which meant more pixels could be applied, and more action. It's simple view created a new genre of arcades and shooters alike.

6. Tetris GameBoy 1984- The Tetris Effect. Do I need to say anymore? You're silly if you do not enjoy Tetris. Still one of the best puzzle games to date. Bar none. From it's catchy music to the complex puzzle creations, Tetris took over the gaming world in ways that no one would have imagined. It started as a computer game but didn't take control of the gaming world until its release on the GameBoy. I remember when I received my first GameBoy. Tetris was packed with it. I can't imagine how many months of my life I have spent playing Tetris. It is the simplest and yet most complex puzzle game. Admit it. If you haven't seen Tetris blocks in a building or on the street, you've hummed the music. You love it.